Photocurable Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Nanocomposite for the 3D Printing of Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 14;15(24):4706.
doi: 10.3390/polym15244706.

Photocurable Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Nanocomposite for the 3D Printing of Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors

Jia-Wun Li  1 , Ho-Fu Chen  1 , Peng-Han Huang  1 , Chung-Feng Jeffrey Kuo  1 , Chih-Chia Cheng  2 , Chih-Wei Chiu  1
Affiliations

Photocurable Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Nanocomposite for the 3D Printing of Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors

Jia-Wun Li et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

A photocurable resin/carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposite was fabricated from aligned CNTs in an acrylic matrix. The conductivity of the nanocomposite increased rapidly and then stabilized when the CNT content was increased up to and beyond the percolation threshold. Various structures were created using a digital light processing (DLP) 3D printer. Various polymeric dispersants (SMA-amide) were designed and synthesized to improve the CNT dispersion and prevent aggregation. The benzene rings and lone electron pairs on the dispersant interacted with aromatic groups on the CNTs, causing the former to wrap around the latter. This created steric hindrance, thereby stabilizing and dispersing the CNTs in the solvent. CNT/polymer nanocomposites were created by combining the dispersant, CNTs, and a photocurable resin. The CNT content of the nanocomposite and the 3D printing parameters were tuned to optimize the conductivity and printing quality. A touch-based human interface device (HID) that utilizes the intrinsic conductivity of the nanocomposite and reliably detects touch signals was fabricated, enabling the free design of sensors of various styles and shapes using a low-cost 3D printer. The production of sensors without complex circuitry was achieved, enabling novel innovations.

Keywords: 3D printing; capacitive pressure sensor; carbon nanotubes; photocuring; sensing element.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Mechanism by which SMA-amide disperses CNTs. (b) Particle size analysis of the CNT/polymeric dispersant solutions on the 0th day: (1) SMA EF80, (2) SMA-M1000, (3) SMA-D2000. (c) Transmittance of the CNT/polymeric dispersant solutions at 550 nm on the 0th day. (d) Particle size analysis of the CNT/polymeric dispersant solutions on the 5th day: (1) SMA EF80, (2) SMA-M1000, (3) SMA-D2000. (e) Transmittance of the CNT/polymeric dispersant solutions at 550 nm on the 5th day. (f,g) TEM micrographs of CNT/polymeric dispersant solutions at different magnifications with (1) no dispersant, (2) SMA EF80, (3) SMA-M1000, and (4) SMA-D2000.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Preparation of CNT/resin nanocomposites. (b) DSC analysis of CNT/resin nanocomposites with different photocuring times. (c) Resin viscosity versus CNT content. (d) Stress-strain curves of CNT/resin nanocomposites with different CNT contents. (e) Nanocomposite resistivity versus CNT content.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Schematic of the capacitive sensor. (b) Effects of resistivity on the signal from the sensor. (c) Schematic of capacitive sensor connected to an LED. (d) Output of LED-connected capacitive sensor: (1) sensors not touched; (2) red LED touched; (3) green LED touched; (4) red and green LEDs touched at the same time. (e) Schematic of 3D-printed touchpad keyboard connected to LCD screen. (f) Output of touchpad keyboard: (1) capacitive sensor number ‘1’ touched; (2) result at the end of the test. (g) Schematic of 3D-printed map of Taiwan. (h) Output from touching the 3D-printed map: (1) result of touching the location corresponding to Taipei City; (2) result of touching the location corresponding to Kaohsiung City.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Huang C.Y., Chiu C.W. Facile fabrication of a stretchable and flexible nanofiber carbon film-sensing electrode by electrospinning and its application in smart clothing for ECG and EMG monitoring. ACS Appl. Electron. Mater. 2021;3:676–686. doi: 10.1021/acsaelm.0c00841. - DOI
    1. Cui W., Yang Y., Di L., Dababneh F. Additive manufacturing-enabled supply chain: Modeling and case studies on local, integrated production-inventory-transportation structure. Addit. Manuf. 2021;48:102471. doi: 10.1016/j.addma.2021.102471. - DOI
    1. Pillai S., Upadhyay A., Khayambashi P., Farooq I., Sabri H., Tarar M., Lee K.T., Harb I., Zhou S., Wang Y., et al. Dental 3D-printing: Transferring art from the laboratories to the clinics. Polymers. 2021;13:157. doi: 10.3390/polym13010157. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andrearczyk A., Konieczny B., Sokołowski J. Additively manufactured parts made of a polymer material used for the experimental verification of a component of a high-speed machine with an optimised geometry—Preliminary research. Polymers. 2021;13:137. doi: 10.3390/polym13010137. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Verbeeten W.M., Arnold-Bik R.J., Lorenzo-Bañuelos M. Print velocity effects on strain-rate sensitivity of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene using material extrusion additive manufacturing. Polymers. 2021;13:149. doi: 10.3390/polym13010149. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 111-2628-E-011-009-MY3, NSTC 112-2622-8-011-012-TE2, and NSTC 112-2221-E-011-004-MY3) of Taiwan.

LinkOut - more resources